Re: function call chaining

On Jan 19, 2010, at 5:54 PM, Alain Williams wrote: >>> $eep->oop()->ork()->ah()->ah(); >>> >>> the newcomer will have to spend significant time rummaging around the >>> source code to figure out what classes are involved. >> As opposed to: >> $oop = $eep->oop(); >> $ork = $oop->ork(); >> $ah = $ork->ah(); >> $ah2 = $ah->ah(); >> >> where it instantly becomes crystal clear! Come on, this argument of "I >> could read any code without ever knowing anything about anything but you >> feature broke it" is getting really stale. You couldn't, and the feature >> changed nothing. > +1 > > At least with $eep->oop()->ork()->ah()->ah() you don't have stray/unwanted > variables hanging round to confuse (or be misused) later. +1 It also supports the "allocation is not initialization" (or anti-RAII) pattern found in languages like Objective-C: Objective-C: String *s = [[String alloc] initWithFormat:@"I'm a little teapot, %@ and %@", @"short", @"stout"]; PHP: $s = (new String)->sprintf("I'm a little teapot, %s and %s", "short", "stout"); (Obviously a very, very contrived example, meant only to illustrate the pattern.) -- Gwynne